1. Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates generally to optical pulse correlation and other temporal measurements and, more specifically, to devices capable of determining the temporal coherence length, center wavelength, and bandwidth of a known or unknown incident optical pulse.
2. Brief Description of Related Technology
Short optical pulses, such as pulses having a pulse duration of less than tens of picoseconds, are typically too short for electronic detection techniques. Standard optoelectronic measurement techniques may fail to have the necessary temporal resolution. One exception involves the use of streak cameras, but such devices are expensive, bulky, and generally not compatible with field-use applications. Resort to optical detection schemes have relied on autocorrelation techniques involving non-linear devices that are complex, non-integrated, wavelength-dependent, and burdened by moving parts. Moreover, optical detection schemes have often been disfavored due to the recognition that the autocorrelation techniques typically require the incident pulses to be near Fourier-transform limited.
As a result of the foregoing complications, pulse duration measurements and other analysis of short optical pulses are rarely performed in the field.